HomeAwayReviews 1,748

We were going to rent a house in Orlando and after a month our plans got changed. We asked the owner for a refund on our deposit which was suppose to be 100% refunded. The owner has not given me my deposit nor has the company did anything to the owner for his actions. I scanned numerous documents to their fraud department in which nothing happened. So I'm out 300 for not even staying in the place. Never use this website! His name is Shlomo Moalam. He is not to be trusted for his word or actions!

If I could give them zero stars I would. The customer service is basically worthless. I have had multiple problems with guests writing reviews and they don't get published. My guests are getting very upset because they often submit 2 or 3 times and weeks later the review still is not posted. Reviews used to be posted in 2-4 days. Now I have had reviews 'sit in the pile' to be pushed through for 2+ weeks. When you call they basically do very little and say they will 'try ' to get the review posted but it still takes several days. Although they are usually pleasant, I am getting tired of having to call repeatedly just to get a review posted.

And if you want to talk to a supervisor, forget it. They tell you that they will 'start a case' for you but it is often days before a supervisor calls you back. I have never dealt w/ a company where a super is not on staff during regular work hours to assist w/ escalated matters.

I have used this website in the past to find lodging. I will rethink that action as after staying at a very mismanaged property/mold, etc... I tried to write in a negative review. The owner disputed this review. After several phone calls and an email requesting 3 or more types of documentation - rental agreement, picture inside the property, receipt, etc. (1 of which should be more than sufficient). I found that the "customer service" at this company is almost completely totally lacking, in specific Ron was unhelpful and rude on call. I would avoid this company and try for other companies that are showing up trying to do this process right. Beware Homeaway, VRBO, and vacation rentals.com are all the same company.

Homeaway is a scam for the home owner. They have an auto renewal policy once you sign up. I realized when I saw my credit card statement, tried canceling, even asking for it to be pro rated, and was denied by their "review board". I was told you can turn off the auto renewal under account settings, but there was nothing to turn off. Once they get you in, they count on you being oblivious to the auto renewal charges. During the last year and one half, all of our renters have come fom VRBO. Not a single one fom Homeaway. Certainly not worth the $329.

I had a terrible experience with HOMEAWAY.COM and would advise against using their service. They are quick to collect their payment but took 3 months to actively post my photos on the listing. $400+ later, I received only 7 inquires in the entire 12 months and numerous times tried to speak w a supervisor. Each time I was told that I would be called back that day. On only two of those times a supervisor called me back but it was several days later and I was never given a direct phone number having to initialize the original call spending multiple hours of my time hanging on the phone. I absolutely hate this company. I don't even hate a fly, but I do Hate Hate Hate homeaway.com. I would recommend saving your money and listing it yourself as we did way better. Or call a local property management firm and let them deal w the hassles. Avoid at all costs homeaway.com.

This website SUCKS for listing owners! Also it seems to be a good tool for to get direct access to owners renting their properties, the customer service is HORREND for owners listing on this website. The site is constantly down, does not work 100% properly for listing owners, has many glitchas - and technical support/ customer service NON-existent. The only thing excistent is their steep annual rate hikes by up to 300% after they purchased all other rental listing companis in thsi market;-(

Similar to some others on this site, we were scammed and Homeaway refuses to accept any liability. My sister-in-law booked what we thought was a great long weekend. Nearly a month later, Homeaway sent a "sympathetic" email about how the home owner's email had been hacked, but how they are not responsible. My sister-in-law checked with the owner and sure enough they had no idea who she was (i. E. our money is gone and we have no place to stay).

Based on the info we've since dug up, this has been a problem for a couple of years, but other than a few "look out for phishing" notices on their site, they won't do anything about it. When my sister-in-law emailed the homeowners to reserve our spot, she had no reason to think the people who responded were scammers. This wasn't one of those Nigerian prince deals. This was a seemingly legitimate transaction. Homeaway is a big company with a ton of money, but they refuse to reimburse the supposedly small percentage of people who have been victimized. Nice customer service, Homeaway. Real nice.

I shared the experience of the posters above. I notified HomeAway of a property that I thought was fraudulent (luckily, I sent them no money) and haven't heard anything from their customer service. They did send out a notification to the email address that sent the original inquiry that there was a potential issue with the property. HomeAway's customer service still has not acknowledged the issue.

HomeAway is doing the absolute minimum about a problem that is extensively discussed here and on their own forums. At this point, they are not a trusted marketplace, though they take pains to appear so. At least with Craigslist you know to be careful.

We were victims of a scam through a listings on HomeAway. Scammers are intercepting emails to the owners posted on the Homeaway site.

We have found that HomeAway is unresponsive and are concerned that others could suffer our same fate.

Please review our experience below and other similar situations at http://community.homeaway.com/message/*******#*******.

On Saturday, Dec 2, our daughter emailed the property owner of Homeaway to request a reservation using the link through the Homeaway.com website. A response was received that day from Holidays Agency LTD <*******@gmail.com> asking for our address and number in party information for the contract. None of the emails we received from them were signed with a name.

The afternoon of Sunday, Dec 3, our daughter replied to the email with the requested information and a response was received early Monday, Dec 4, with a rental agreement and refund information letter attached. The refund letter requested our bank account information so they could refund our deposit through bank transfer. They also told us we must respond within 72 hours to guarantee the price. The contract had an official looking seal with a Carefree Rental Guarantee logo.

On Tuesday, Dec 6, our daughter noted that the contract had the address incorrectly listed as a rental property in Rhode Island instead of Fort Lauderdale. She emailed a request for a corrected contract which was received that day.

On Wednesday, Dec 7, we did some online checking of the owner's name, Holidays Agency Ltd, etc. The owner listed on Homeaway had an international phone number and, as we were away from home, our cell phones did not have overseas calling capability. We then arranged with our bank to transfer the money as the terms of the contract requested. That afternoon we purchased the Carefree Rental Guarantee insurance online and in navigating around the Homeaway website we came across a Community message posted that same day regarding a scam that sounded frighteningly like our situation. (link above)

We immediately contacted our bank to attempt to halt the bank transfer and contacted the Homeaway help line. Within an hour our daughter received an email cautioning her about a possible scam involving the property and advising her to contact the owner again through the Homeaway website to confirm we were dealing with the correct person. The next morning Thursday, Dec 8, we received a response from the owner saying the property was already booked for those dates. Clearly we had been dealing with a scammer instead of the owner

On Monday, Dec 12, we received an email from Holidays Agency to "confirm the booking period and the payment". We responded with regrets we must cancel our reservation and requested a refund via certified check and have received no response.

Homeaway is investigating. We are out $3800 and are sadder, but wiser.

Homeaway is simply a place for an owner to post whatever information they want to regarding their property. This information could be totally false, misleading or accurate. There is no way to verify the information. The homeowners can delete any review they do not like so all you read are these glowing reviews. My last experience renting through homeaway.com has left a very bad taste in my mouth. The property was not as described and the owner kept saying the her description was accurate. No one in my party agreed with her. When waiting for my reimbursement she charged me $15 for not emptying the bathroom waste can, $10 for a coffee table not being in its exact original location, $10 for not starting the dishwasher and $25 for excessive dog hair. Nothing was in the contract warning me that I could be nickeled and dimed out of any of my reimbursement. Suggest you first go to a google site that allows you to see the property, close up, from an orbiting satellite. It is at least a chance to see if there is any misleading claims going on. This was property number *******.

Home Away seemed like a legitimate business and got us in contact with a renter for a property for a family trip from the US to Buenos Aires. We signed a contract with Home Away's help 2 months prior to our departure and took Home Away's "Rental Guarantee". When the renter backed out 1 week prior to the rent date and has bounced the check refunding the 2200. 00 dollar rent Home Away refused even to allow us to write a bad review about the property because we did not stay there!
We will continue to fight Home Away for reimbursemnet under their "guarantee" program but hold out little hope. Contacting them is difficult and when contacted they are rude and unhelpful.
This company protects the interests of property owners only.Do not rent from them. If things go south, they will not be there to help.
Hank West

HomeAway.com and their subisidary VRBO.com are engaged in false advertising. They want guests to believe that renting direct from owners will allow the owner to reduce the fee by eliminating professional managers. But owners who use the service want to eliminate the commission and get the money themselves. Guest and owner can't both get the same money. So that is the false premise.

Several years ago HomeAway raised $450 million dollars to buya nd buildng VRBO.com, CyberRentals.com, A1Vactaions and others. This has has been a disaster for advertiers (Owners and Managers). By overloading their sites with listings, the sites become unusable. Ad rates have sky rocketed but guest inquiries and guest qualifications have plummetted.

The only goal the HomeAway managers have, is to build up the thing big enough, go public, and cash out. They are not in it personally for the long haul. They are Internet geeks who don't understand the basic business premise that they must produce economically for advertisers. Hey even teenagers working at McDonalds understand it better than that.

Stay as far away from this company as you can.